Chalk Food + Wine Part 2

I'm so glad Cincinnati local restaurants decided to do a restaurant week. I had heard of other cities doing the same thing and always thought it was such a great idea. In Ryan' s post her said that the $25.08/person was not a really good deal, but I kind of disagree. For some of the restaurants that participated, it was not the best deal to do the tasting menu, but for many of the pricier Cincinnati restaurants, I think it's a great deal. It's a great way to experience a restaurant you might not normally go to every Saturday night for a reasonable price. And it's always good to support local restaurants.

I liked Chalk right away. I thought the atmosphere was modern with a little bit of a quirky touch. I wore my favorite red shoes and the hostess complemented me on them when we walked in and then our waitress did too. That put me in a great mood right off the bat. :) Our server was really great, she was very knowledgeable and fun and very attentive. Before I get in to the post out my meal, I want to talk about the wine I ordered. I decided on a red wine and saw on the wine list a natura carmenere. I was intrigued so I asked the server and she informed me it was a South American wine and the grapes are all organic. She said because it was organic, you could really taste all of the flavors. I decided to try the natura carmenere and it was so good! It was a really flavorful wine, not too dry. I definitely want to try and find a bottle of this next time I am at a wine store.

Ok- now about my meal. Ryan talked about our calamari appetizer and I thought it was good, I liked that it was 2 takes on calamari, but the dish wasn't really memorable compared to the rest of our dishes. The first course of my tasting menu was a potato and beet salad. The salad had fingerling potatoes chopped in small pieces, diced beets and walnuts lightly tossed in a walnut vinaigrette. On top was a little bit of lettuce and a crispy chip. There was some of the vinaigrette artfully presented on the side and a small segment of what I think was grapefruit. The potato salad was excellent, I loved the pungent flavor of the beets and the crunch of the walnuts. The vinaigrette was not heavy at all and was a nice complement to the ingredients. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the little segment of grapefruit with the salad or if it was just a garnish, but it brightened up the salad when I did have a bite with the grapefruit.

Second course I chose the butter poached cod. It was served over carrots and green lentils and there was a light buttery sauce surrounding the meal. You can see in the picture that on top are some blue flecks, that is salt! I just tried doing a little research to see if I could figure out what kind of salt it is, but I am still a foodie in training, so I'm really not sure. I think it might be crystalline sea salt. Anyway, the cod was really good, wonderfully cooked and it paired well with the carrots and green lentils. The light buttery sauce was also really nice and not very heavy, which I like. The bites with the blue salt definitely had a salty kick to it, but it really enhanced the flavor of the fish.
My third course, dessert, was just pure sin in the form of a double chocolate cupcake. It looked so pretty when our server laid it in front of me I almost didn't want to eat it, but that didn't stop me from immediately taking the chocolate piece from the top and taking my first bite of rich (and I mean rich) chocolaty goodness. I'm not really a chocolate or dessert person, but this cupcake was like the mother of all cupcakes. It was a chocolate cupcake with a layer of ganache and then a 2 inch layer of chocolate mousse frosting with chocolate chips, sprinkles and the chocolate piece on top....whoa. Needless to say it was amazing and I only ate about half of it because it was so rich and I was getting full.

I would definitely go back to Chalk, I really liked the atmosphere and the back patio looked like it is probably a happening place when the weather is nice. My grade: A

Mario Batali was our Valentine

Cute shoes, right? Alright, I wore them to Law Prom last weekend but I thought the red shoes were Valentine's Day Post appropriate. :)
Instead of getting all dressed up and going out for a fancy Valentine's dinner, we decided to choose a few recipes and make a great dinner. And that we did. We didn't start cooking until late in the evening but it was so worth it. We weren't sure where to get a good cut of veal, I wasn't sure if Kroger or Bigg's would carry it, so we decided to go to Fresh Market. Fresh Market is a very upscale grocery store, that I happen to love. It is not a place where we do our regular grocery shopping, we tried to do that once and ended up spending $6 on Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese. Anyway, I like it because it is a true departure from your normal supermarket, they play classical music, they have really high quality ingredients, an awesome meat and seafood selection and interesting things like making your own peanut or almond butter. We were lucky to get the last few cuts of veal and the rest of our ingredients for our fabulous dinner.

Here is the menu:
-Saltimbocca alla Romana (Roman-Style Veal Cutlets with Sage)
- Braised Baby Fennel
- Carmelized Onion Toasts
It was absolutely delicious. Just as good as any restaurant meal we could have had. Ryan was in charge of the veal so I will let him explain.

Veal Saltimbocca. The First time I remember having the dish was when I was 19 years old in St. Louis. I was visiting some friends during my first year of college and we went out to a nice Italian restaurant--- I can't remember the name. It was a nice piece of veal with a light sauce, but then there was the kicker- it was stuffed with prosciutto and cheese. It might have been the single most delicious bite I ever had up to that time. Since, I've had veal saltimbocca at many restaurants. Sometimes the prosciutto was on the outside, sometimes the veal was stuffed, sometimes there was cheese, sometimes not, but it was always a great dish.

This was the first time I tried to make veal saltimbocca. We bought some veal scallopini, and added some sage leaves. I think the sage was one of the keys to the dish, that and of course, the prosciutto. Prosciutto di Parma is a dried, cured ham, with a salty and spiced flavor. It is sliced razor, razor thin and is makes for the most incredible sandwiches ever made- and by sandwich, I don't mean the crap I have for lunch everyday- tasteless American honey ham, american processed to hell cheese and mustard on flimsy white bread- I mean real a real sandwich with prosciutto on some hard ciabatta or french bread, a little provolone cheese, maybe a roasted red pepper, and some salt and pepper. Really, prosciutto is one of my absolute favorite foods in the world.

Anyways, I ended up wrapping the veal, pounded pretty thin, and the sage in freshly sliced prosciutto. I lightly dredged them in seasoned flour and cooked them in a butter olive oil mixture for less than 5 minutes. I removed the veal and added some white wine to de-glaze, seasoning and some more oil to create a light sauce, in which I finished cooking the veal. The result was a salty veal dish packed with more flavor than one could think possible by the few ingredients used. Really, it was just sage, prosciutto, white wine, and veal plus some butter, oil, salt and pepper. The light wine sauce was just enough to cut the intense flavor of the meat. In all of Mario's brilliance, he suggested serving with lemon wedges. The lemon added a freshness and brightness that truly completed the dish. This was probably the best, most restaurant worthy meat course I have ever made. Mario Batali is awesome.

I (Erin) was in charge of the braised fennel and the carmelized onion toasts. Fennel is a very new ingredient for me to cook with so I had to do some research on how to cut and prepare it. This recipe called for just using the bulbs, so I chopped and julienned the fennel bulb and boiled it until fork tender in a large pot of water. In the mean time I started the carmelized onion toasts. I chopped 3 onions and sauteed them with 2 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper and basil. The onions didn't carmelize very well because we did not use the recommended amount of butter (in an attempt to try and make it healthier). So the toasts were not as sweet as they could have been. To remedy that, we drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the finished toasts and it really added a lot of flavor.
To finish the fennel, I put 1/4 cup of olive oil in a saute pan and heated on low/medium heat. I added garlic, chopped anchovies and red pepper to the heated olive oil. Once the garlic was slowly cooking and the anchovies were starting to disolve, I added the fennel and let it saute for 5 minutes. When it was done, I added some fresh orange zest, salt and pepper and it was ready to serve.

The dinner was absolutely fabulous and the aromas in our small apartment were intoxicating. The fennel had a really great flavor, the natural anise (black licorice) taste of the fennel mixed with the orange and garlic flavor was a great combination. Everything was great and it turned out to be a great Valentine's Day Dinner!